Our story begins in 1991 when the Center of the Universe was discovered in Fremont. Immediately, members of the Fremont Business Association recognized the need for a suitably unique landmark monument. Many ideas were considered, but the answer came on a live morning newscast reporting the dismantling of the circa 1950 cold war rocket fuselage attached to AJ’s Surplus in Bell town. The word went out and within minutes FBA officials were at the site to acquire the Rocket. Now, instead of heading to the scrap yard, the Rocket was on its way to Fremont and into urban mythology.

The Rocket languished in the back lots of Fremont until the summer of ’93 when a team of ambitious Fremont business people undertook to erect the Rocket on the roof of the Bitter’s building on the corner of Evanston and 36th. Beset with a comedy of engineering problems, the site was not to be, leaving the well intentioned team with the uncomfortable stigma of not being able to get it up.